I pulled up to my friend Kelsey’s house to find two cop cars sitting outside. We were unsure to why they were there; it was 11:00 p.m. on a Thursday night after all. I can remember the whole day so vividly. It started snowing in the middle of the day; the weather forecast was predicting a severe snow storm that would go late into the night. Several students were picked up from school because their parents did not want them to drive home through the snow. I, like most students, was eager to get a call from my mom telling me that I should come home early; however, that call never came because my mom assumed the snow would let up. My gymnastics team’s sectional was scheduled to be later on that night but we all thought since the snow was heavy it would be cancelled. We got on the bus and headed to school.

We all arrived safely at the competition, and waited to see if our parents would end up coming because of the snowstorm, My parent’s showed up about an hour late because they swerved in the snow, hit a rock, and got a flat tire. My dad fixed it as quickly as he could because he promised me he would be at the competition to watch me perform, for perhaps the last time that season. My friend Kelsey’s mom had also promised her she would be at the meet; however, as the event rotations passed, and her mom had not shown up yet, she had begun to get worried. I reassured her that it was fine; I said with a smile, “Kelsey, your mom probably just got held up at work, and didn’t want to go out in the snow. Don’t worry about it.”
The meet went on until about 10:00 p.m. and we took the bus back. When we left the snow had let down; nonetheless, the roads were extremely icy and it wasn’t 11:00 p.m. until we showed up at her house. Unlike any of the other times I had gone to the Stewart household, this time it wasn’t welcoming. We were shocked to see the cop cars, but walked up to the door anyway where two officers greeted us. They told us that they had some news, but they said we might want to wake up Kelsey’s dad before they told us. They let us know they had been knocking on the door for over an hour, but Kelsey’s dad, who was a heavy sleeper, had not heard them knocking.
We all settled in the living room and the cops told us something that changed Kelsey and her family’s life forever. They told her that there had been an accident and that her mom had been one of the victims of the crash. She was hit from the side by another car and her neck had snapped and she had been killed instantly. I thought to myself, dead. No that’s impossible. I just saw her breathing and alive last night.
I drove home in silence, I woke up my parents and told them what happened and cried for the rest of the night.

Kelsey did not come to gymnastics the next day, or the day after that. I did everything I could to try and help her cope with the situation, and did my best to help her grieve although it was hard for me to find the right words to relate to something so tragic. The rest of the team had a hard time dealing with the death of someone we all knew so well. The whole experience taught me that you can never take anything, or anyone for grantide. You have to live life to the fullest, because you don’t know how much time you have until it’s swept away.